In this document, the Commission eliminates the sports blackout rules for cable operators, satellite carriers, and open video systems. Elimination of the sports blackout rules will remove unnecessary and outdated regulations and remove regulatory reinforcement (and the Commission's implicit endorsement) of the NFL's private blackout policy, which deprives consumers of the ability to view on television the teams that they have subsidized through publicly-funded stadiums and other tax benefits. Elimination of the sports blackout rules may not end all sports blackouts. To the extent that the NFL (or any other sports league) chooses to continue its private blackout policy, it will no longer entitled to the protections of the sports blackout rules. Instead, it must rely on the same avenues available to any other entity that wishes to protect its distribution rights in the private marketplace.

Effective June 4, 2015. The incorporation by reference of certain publications listed in the rule is approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of June 4, 2015.

47 CFR Parts 73 and 76

Summary

In this document, the Commission makes minor changes to the rules that restrict the volume of television commercials. Specifically, as required by the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, the Commission incorporates by reference into the Commission's rules the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC) March 12, 2013 A/85:2013 Recommended Practice (RP) (Successor RP), replacing the July 25, 2011 A/85:2011 Recommended Practice (Current RP), incorporated into the Commission's rules in 2011. The Successor RP will become mandatory on June 4, 2015. The 2013 Successor RP applies an improved loudness measurement algorithm to conform to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) updated BS.1770 measurement algorithm, “BS.1770-3.”

The Federal Communications Commission (“Commission”) adopts a rule providing that it is a violation of the duty to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith for a television broadcast station that is ranked among the top four stations as measured by audience share to negotiate retransmission consent jointly with another such station, if the stations are not commonly owned and serve the same geographic market. The rule is intended to promote competition among Top Four broadcast stations for carriage of their signals by multichannel video programming distributors and facilitate the fair and effective completion of retransmission consent negotiations.

This is a list of United States Code sections, Statutes at Large, Public Laws, and Presidential Documents, which provide rulemaking authority for this CFR Part.

In this document, the Commission eliminates the sports blackout rules for cable operators, satellite carriers, and open video systems. Elimination of the sports blackout rules will remove unnecessary and outdated regulations and remove regulatory reinforcement (and the Commission's implicit endorsement) of the NFL's private blackout policy, which deprives consumers of the ability to view on television the teams that they have subsidized through publicly-funded stadiums and other tax benefits. Elimination of the sports blackout rules may not end all sports blackouts. To the extent that the NFL (or any other sports league) chooses to continue its private blackout policy, it will no longer entitled to the protections of the sports blackout rules. Instead, it must rely on the same avenues available to any other entity that wishes to protect its distribution rights in the private marketplace.

Effective June 4, 2015. The incorporation by reference of certain publications listed in the rule is approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of June 4, 2015.

47 CFR Parts 73 and 76

Summary

In this document, the Commission makes minor changes to the rules that restrict the volume of television commercials. Specifically, as required by the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, the Commission incorporates by reference into the Commission's rules the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC) March 12, 2013 A/85:2013 Recommended Practice (RP) (Successor RP), replacing the July 25, 2011 A/85:2011 Recommended Practice (Current RP), incorporated into the Commission's rules in 2011. The Successor RP will become mandatory on June 4, 2015. The 2013 Successor RP applies an improved loudness measurement algorithm to conform to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) updated BS.1770 measurement algorithm, “BS.1770-3.”

The Federal Communications Commission (“Commission”) adopts a rule providing that it is a violation of the duty to negotiate retransmission consent in good faith for a television broadcast station that is ranked among the top four stations as measured by audience share to negotiate retransmission consent jointly with another such station, if the stations are not commonly owned and serve the same geographic market. The rule is intended to promote competition among Top Four broadcast stations for carriage of their signals by multichannel video programming distributors and facilitate the fair and effective completion of retransmission consent negotiations.

Comments for this proceeding are due on or before May 12, 2014; reply comments are due on or before June 9, 2014.

47 CFR Part 76

Summary

In this document, the Commission seeks comment on whether to eliminate or modify the network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules in light of changes in the video marketplace in the more than 40 years since these rules were adopted. The Commission seeks comment on whether the exclusivity rules are still needed to protect broadcasters' ability to compete in the video marketplace and to ensure that program suppliers have sufficient incentives to develop new and diverse programming and on the impact of eliminating of the exclusivity rules.

Comments for this proceeding are due on or before February 24, 2014; reply comments are due on or before March 25, 2014.

47 CFR Part 76

Summary

In this document, the Commission seeks comment on its proposal to eliminate the sports blackout rules. Elimination of the sports blackout rules alone likely would not end sports blackouts, but it would leave sports carriage issues to private solutions negotiated by the interested parties in light of current market conditions and eliminate unnecessary regulation.

Comments are due on or before December 27, 2013; reply comments are due on or before January 13, 2014.

47 CFR Parts 73 and 76

Summary

In this document, the Commission proposes minor rule changes to incorporate by reference into the Commission's rules and make mandatory the Advanced Television Systems Committee's (ATSC) March 12, 2013 A/85:2013 Recommended Practice (Successor RP), replacing the July 25, 2011 A/85:2011 RP (Current RP), incorporated into the Commission's rules in 2011. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act directs the Commission to incorporate by reference and make mandatory “any successor” to the ATSC's A/85 Recommended Practice (RP). This document also seeks comment on the appropriate timing for the 2013 Successor RP to replace the 2011 Current RP, and proposes an effective date of one year from the release date of the Report and Order resulting from this proceeding. The 2013 Successor RP applies an improved loudness measurement algorithm to conform to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) updated BS.1770 measurement algorithm, “BS.1770-3.”